There's A Reason Why They're Called A Jynx
by SillyQuill
Summary: Trainer Shuichi's one of the best around, despite his misbehaving Jynx. But, when Yuki is only shown this one bad Pokemon of Shuichi's, he immediately assumes that Shuichi is a pretty bad trainer himself. Shuichi's about to show him how wrong he is.
1. Holy Jynx!

**This was never supposed to happen. When I first came up with the idea, it was only to illustrate the sheer absurdity of certain crossovers, but the idea wouldn't go away, so here's this ficlet is for you to enjoy! (Oh, there are two or three slightly "bad" words in here, but I didn't really think that they deserved upping the rating, so this is your warning in regards to those.)**

**I'd just like to say in a final note that it was really a lot of fun doing all the research on the Pokémon to make this as accurate as possible XD!**

"Shuichi, stop it!" a voice called from a distance.

The pink haired boy jumped and spun around quickly, the words, "I wasn't doing anything!" already past his lips before he could identify who was speaking to him.

"Yes, you were. Now, stop agitating the Tauros! You're going to get yourself trampled to death!" Suguru continued, making his way over to him with Hiro and K not too far behind him.

"It's penned up," Shuichi muttered, glancing back over his shoulder at the snorting, irritated bull Pokémon pawing at the ground. "Oh, come on!" Shuichi exploded, yelling at the Pokémon. "I'm not THAT annoying!"

The Tauros responded by charging the fence separating it from Shuichi and attempting to mow both the fence and Shuichi down.

"_Eek!_" Shuichi shrieked, tripping and diving to the ground as he tried to escape the angry Pokémon that, luckily for Shuichi, stayed cooped up behind the wooden posts.

Off in the distance, K and Hiro were laughing their asses off while Suguru, who purposely suppressed his mirth, goaded, "I told you to stop."

"It was behind a fence!" Shuichi shouted back from where he was sprawled on the ground, totally outraged.

"Then, why did you run away?" K asked, smirking, sunglasses hiding his eyes from sight.

"You mean _try_ to run away, right, K?" Hiro joked.

"Shut _up!_ You're supposed to be my friend, Hiro!" he yelled, overdramatic tears streaming down his cheeks from his giant, wet anime eyes.

"I'm still your friend. Just because you're an airhead doesn't mean I'm not your friend," Hiro said, reaching Shuichi and offering him his hand.

"Hmph." Shuichi turned his head away. "I don't want help from someone who thinks I'm an airhead." He began to uber-pout.

"So, you're going to stay down there until someone comes along that doesn't think you're an airhead?" K queried a few steps away from the two.

"YES!" Shuichi declared.

"You're going to be down there a long time, then," Suguru stated, glaring down at Shuichi. Suguru's Seadra, whose tail wrapped around Suguru's upper arm kept it in place, shared in the glaring.

The Seadra had been a gift from Suguru's cousin, Tohma, to protect him after he'd joined Shuichi and Hiro in their quest to "catch 'em all". It hadn't been his choice to join; his cousin had made him.

Shuichi and Hiro had joined the company NG, a commercial effort to catch as many Pokémon as possible and to promote teams of successful trainers, because they'd wanted the adventure it promised. They'd become some of the best trainers around quite by accident, not actually making a conscious effort to do anything more than their personal best and have fun as they did so. Nevertheless, news of their success had reached the ears of NG president Tohma Seguchi, who'd attached Suguru, a passable trainer on his own, to their team. He'd also taken away the previous manager of their team, Sakano, instead placing Sakano at the base to wait and care for the Pokémon they brought in. K had become their manager after that, demanding the position and abandoning his prior team, the legendary Ryuichi Sakuma and Noriko Ukai, who could function quite well on their own by now.

"Don't be mean, Suguru," Hiro lightly reprimanded. "Come on, Shuichi. We need to get a move on—"

"NO!"

Suguru scoffed. "Don't be such a baby—"

"NO!"

"Shuichi, I suggest you get up soon. Doing so in the next five seconds would be wise of you," K calmly suggested, peeling his sunglasses off and crossing his arms over his chest, then, leaning against the Tauros, completely without fear of the pen's occupant.

All three of the trainers went quiet, as they always did when K made such a pronouncement.

Even though they all knew what would happen, Suguru began, "What will you do if he doesn't—?"

"Blastoise, I choose you!" Ripping a pokeball from inside his back pocket, K hurled it up the air, and it erupted to release the huge Pokémon contained within.

"_Blastoise,_" the Pokémon moaned out.

"Wait, wait! I'll get up! _Wait!_" Shuichi cried out, desperately attempting to scramble to his feet and escape the consequences of his little tantrum.

"Blastoise, water canon attack!" K commanded sadistically.

"_Blastoise,_" the Pokémon responded thunderously, bracing its feet against the ground and aiming its revealed canons directly at Shuichi… and Hiro and Suguru who were standing near him.

"K, no! Stop! _Wait_!"

"Oh, my _God_! _K_! _What the hell?_"

"_Eeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhh!_"

The blast of water hit, and all three trainers went flying with the force of it, K laughing all the while in the background.

"You bastard, K!" Suguru shouted once the water canon let up. Hiro was sitting up, coughing up water several feet away from him, and, even further beyond Hiro, Shuichi was curled into the fetal position, arms up protecting his head and face, not taking any chance that the onslaught was truly over.

"Come on, Suguru. At least your Seadra liked the soaking," K laughed. It was true: the Seadra was preening its snout down the fins on its back, as close to having a pleased expression as a Seadra was capable of having.

"Goddamn water Pokémon," Hiro cursed, voice hoarse from the coughing. Hiro himself was a fire Pokémon trainer and already predisposed to not like the water-types. Having to deal with K's Blastoise and Suguru's often vicious and always hateful Seadra just reinforced the dislike.

Suguru, who was already up and shaking his arms to flick off the excess water, called out nastily, "_Now_ will you get up Shuichi? …Shuichi?"

"I'm scared," came the squeak from the curled up ball of Shuichi.

"You got blasted because you didn't get up, you idiot! Getting up will, therefore, not get you soaked again. So, get up!" Suguru shouted, finally cracking completely.

"That's not what I'm scared of," came the second squeak.

Suguru turned away with a throaty sound of fed-up disgust, his Seadra glaring back at Shuichi, emitting a low, barely recognizable, "_Dra._"

"Yes, yes, we all hate you, too, Seadra," Hiro said, waving flippantly waving his hand, dismissing the bad-tempered Pokémon as he made his way over to his friend.

Reaching him, Hiro squatted down and asked, "So, what are you so scared of that you don't want to go anywhere, Shuichi?"

"Mm… I don't want to talk about it," the ball that was Shuichi quickly muttered.

"It might help," K said in a sing-song voice, coming up to the two, Blastoise following with a heavy gait.

"Mm…"

"Come on, Shuichi," Hiro tenderly coaxed. Shuichi lifted his head from his arms so that only his emotive, purple eyes peeked out.

"Just spit it out, airhead," Suguru spat, coming back over to the huddling group.

"No," Shuichi said, popping his head back behind his arms.

K sighed. "I guess I'll just have to use my Blastoise again."

"_No!_" the three shouted in unison, Hiro and Shuichi suddenly leaping to their feet, ready to flee.

"Heh." K smirked, crossing his arms once again. "Are you going to tell or not, Shuichi?"

They all focused on him again.

"Well…" he began.

"Yeees?" K enticed, leaning in.

"I… I sort of met someone," he admitted.

Looking up, he saw all three of them had looks of utter disbelief and shock on their faces.

"You… what?" Hiro asked.

"Okay, I guess I really didn't "_meet_" someone, but I did _meet_ him, you know, for the first time," Shuichi blathered. "And… and he was cool, and he was handsome, and he was tall, and he was hot, and he had the most amazing eyes, and… and… and he HATES ME!" Shuichi broke down in tears right before their very eyes.

"Shuichi, you… you mean to say you…" Hiro wasn't even sure what he was supposed to be asking, he was so confused.

"I didn't even know he was gay," Suguru said quietly, mystified, to his Seadra.

"_Dra…_" the Pokémon responded, eyes wide.

"How do you know he hated you, Shuichi?" K questioned, taking control.

"He… he just _did!_ He was mean and rude, and he told me that I wasn't a very good trainer—"

"How would he know if you were a good trainer or not?" Suguru asked, miffed that someone in _his_ team would be considered anything less than great.

"Well…" And, now, Shuichi got really quiet, knowing he was in for it. "I had my Jynx out, and—"

"WHAT?" Hiro shouted.

"You were told never to bring that Pokémon out, Shuichi. Ever!" Suguru scolded violently. Seadra gave several emphasized, loud, growling "_Dra_'s".

K paled and took several slow, unsteady steps back from Shuichi and a certain pokeball housed in Shuichi's vest.

Shuichi's Jynx wasn't something normally to be feared. If anything, it was probably weaker than many other Jynx's in the region, if not world. But, something, the team didn't know what, had gone wrong in Jynx's evolution from a Smoochum, and, now, the Jynx had a nasty attitude, almost unheard of in the species, and a strange, unexplainable attraction towards… K.

Shuichi's Jynx held a very prominent role in the nightmares that attacked K in his sleep.

"The moment we get back to NG, you're getting rid of that thing, you hear, Shuichi?" K said weakly, mostly to himself.

Shuichi bobbed his head up and down quickly. "Right, right, I know. But, while I still had her, I figured I might as well give her a chance to stretch and breathe some fresh air; it would be cruel to keep her confined for the entire trip!" he defended himself.

Not one of his teammates agreed with him. That Jynx was a menace, the end.

"So, you had your Jynx out…" Hiro encouraged the telling of the story.

"Well, I think it's because he had yellow hair, like K…" K paled even more so.

"The guy who you met but didn't "_meet_"?" Hiro clarified.

"Yes, him. But… she just kind of went ballistic and tried to go after him," Shuichi said, a still fairly horrified look on his face over what had happened.

"Oh, God," Suguru muttered, face-palming himself. "No wonder he hates you."

"And, then, what?" Hiro asked, wondering if he really wanted to know.

"I tried to grab her, I really did, but… she kind of over-powered me. And, when I called out my Staryu, she just brushed off its water attacks…" Hiro's left eye began twitching with the sheer… lack of common sense Shuichi had shown, as well as the general dismay the tale inspired. He swallowed.

"And, then…?"

"I lost control." When he got no response to the statement, Shuichi continued, "Of everything."

… A cricket chirped in the distance…

"What else do you expect me to say?" he burst out.

"What happened to the man?" Suguru asked, frustrated that he had to. K, who'd been quiet the whole time, gave a slight nod.

"Oh, you see, just in the nick of time, he called out his Victreebel and caught my Jynx—"

"Oh, thank god!" K rasped out, almost sinking to the ground with relief that the man had escaped the terror that was Shuichi's Jynx, only being kept upright by his Blastoise standing behind him and catching him.

"_Blastoise._"

"No!" Shuichi argued. "It was horrible; the thing tried to eat my Jynx!"

"And, it should have," K shouted back from his Blastoise's arms. "Good riddance to the thing is what I would have said had it been eaten. That's it; tomorrow we're heading back to NG to get rid of that demented Pokémon, do you understand?"

They all nodded, readily agreeing to whatever K wanted when he was like this. Being sprayed by Blastoise's canon was hard enough to handle once a day, let alone twice. Plus, the first time, which was also the last and only time they'd disagreed with K when he'd been in this particular mood, not only had they gotten soaked by Blastoise, but K had also called out his Hitmonchan and had it chase them all up a tree and keep them there all night, occasionally waking them by having it punch the base of the tree in a staccato rhythm that fiercely made its way up the tree to where they'd "slept", almost shaking them down to the waiting fighting-type Pokemon.

It was understandable why they never disagreed with K again when he was like this.

"Good," K stated, heaving himself from arms of his Blastoise and returning it to its pokeball. He turned to look back at and address them all. "Now, let's get a move on. I want to find a phone to call Sakano with and let him know we're coming, and to warn him get all blondes off the premises." He turned around and began walking along the country lane that ran beside the Tauros pen.

Suguru rolled his eyes at the silliness being displayed about him and shared a look of annoyance with his Seadra before he began following the team's manager.

Hiro and Shuichi formed the rear of the group, trouping behind the other two side by side.

"So, what happened after that?" Hiro asked quietly to Shuichi.

Shuichi looked up at him with a confused frown between his eyebrows.

"With the guy? After his Victreebel brought your Jynx's rampage to a standstill, what happened?" he spelled out, looking ahead rather than at Shuichi. "I mean, no offense, but right before you told us he hated you, you seemed to be on the verge of fan-girling all over the guy."

"I'm not a fangirl," Shuichi stated sulkily, turning his poutiful face away from his accuser.

"No, you're not, if only by a simple anatomical error." Hiro's face was completely serious as he said this.

Shuichi was on the verge of letting Hiro have it, when the emotions he'd felt while in the presence of the Victreebels's trainer resurfaced.

He sighed deeply.

"It's just… I know I'm a good trainer, even if the guy says I'm not. After all, what does he know? But, it's stuff like what happened with Jynx that sometimes make me think otherwise."

"But, that's the one Pokémon, Shuichi, not all of them—"

"Yeah, I know, but then, in front of this guy, I also try to use Staryu to get Jynx to stop. Staryu? I tried to use a water-type Pokémon against a Jynx. I mean, what the hell was I thinking?" Shuichi threw his arms up into the air, bringing them back down to cover his head. "It's no wonder the guy thought I was a bad trainer. And, that's exactly what he said, too, that I was a bad trainer."

"The man knows nothing about you, Shuichi." Shuichi looked over to his friend, who was looking down on him with great kindness in his eyes. "He knew you for five minutes at the most it sounds like. He doesn't know a thing, and you can't let his words get to you like this. You're an excellent trainer, and each and every one of your Pokémon, _besides_ Jynx, would say the same if they could." Shuichi's eyes filled with emotion for a moment, but then it all went away.

"I know… but, when I looked into his eyes, at first I saw disdain there, but… beyond that… they were so beautiful…" Shuichi trailed off, looking down at the ground passing beneath his feet, not really seeing it. "I want to believe everything that the man with those eyes says, Hiro. I can't explain it more than that."

Hiro looked down at his friend, compassion warring with practicality inside of him…

Draping his arm around his friend's shoulders and getting a confused look for it, he asked Shuichi, "Did he give you any clues as to where he was going after your little scrap?"

"Uh…" Shuichi was completely dazed for a moment, thinking back to earlier that day. Then, a spark lit in his eyes. "Yes! He was at the top of a hill when Jynx went after him, and he left before I did, so I was able to see where he went once he left. He took that road where we were attacked by all those Zubats and its evolutions, remember it?"

"Yeah. It goes through the forest and along the cliffs and rivers. It doesn't have any turnoffs, _and_…" Shuichi waited for him to continue with wide, expectant eyes. "… it's on the way to NG."

It dawned it Shuichi's mind. He gave a drastic inhale of glee. "If we can convince K to take that route back to NG, we might be able to catch up with him!"

Hiro nodded. "And, once we do, we can prove to him that you're not a trainer to be messed with."

"La li hoooooooooooooooooo!" Shuichi shouted in fantastical, exuberant delight. "K! I have an idea, K!"

Hiro shook his head, a grin on his face, as Shuichi rushed ahead to tell K "his" idea…

**How was it? Keep in mind that this was an attempt to be purely juvenile and to have fun doing so. I haven't had anything to do with Pokémon for years, and I actually didn't watch that many episodes of it when I did. But, like I said, it was a hell of a lot of fun researching and writing this, and there are going to be two more chapters, so keep that in mind! **


	2. That's So Not Fair, K

**I think this is the quickest I've ever released a successive chapter in any of the chapter fics I've written, but, just like with the first one, it was just so much fun that I couldn't bring myself to stop, so enjoy the second chapter of ****There's A Reason They're Called A Jynx****. Oh, just so you know, I think this might be a little more serious in parts than the first chapter. It's really hard to write humor, actually, especially when it's not what I'm used to producing.**

"You are out of you pink-haired little mind, Shuichi," K lazed out for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

"Oh, please, K? _Please?_ Please, please, PLEASE, please, _please, PLEASE,_ please, please—"

"Make him shut up!" Suguru shouted, covering his ears against the barrage of 'pleases'.

"I don't see what the problem is with taking that way back to NG," Hiro put in, walking beside Suguru, following behind K and Shuichi.

"Really? I would have thought you would understand more easily than the rest of them," K commented, ignoring the puppy-dog eyes Shuichi was giving him from where he was walking backwards in front of K. It was the next day, and they were continuing down the same path that they'd started on, heading for Nittletown to find a phone to call Sakano at NG with. And, they were going in the _opposite_ direction of the route Shuichi and Hiro wanted to take.

"Why's that, K?" Hiro wondered, not quite trusting their manager's motives for saying such a thing.

"Well, not only do you seem to be the more logical and level-headed of these two, but you also have long hair like I do." This made everyone pause and think… and think… and think.

"How the hell is that relevant?" Suguru asked, frustrated with his whole team at this point.

"Simple, my dearestSuguru."Suguru blushed. "When we took that road last time, Zubats attacked us."

"… And?" they all asked in unison, not yet getting it.

"And, I, for one, don't want those blue little creatures getting caught in my hair," K answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Jaws dropped.

"You really are insane, aren't you?" Suguru muttered to himself. K nodded, a self-satisfied smile on his face.

"_Please_, K," Shuichi began begging again, clasping his hands supplicating in front of him. "I'll let you have some of my spare pokeballs."

K shook his head, eyes shut. "Nuh uh, I can just get more when we're back at headquarters."

Shuichi began rummaging through his pockets, trying to find anything that would tempt K enough to let them take the same road the blonde stranger with beautiful eyes had.

"Wuh um, I'll… I'll… I'll give you my old pokedex!" Shuichi exclaimed, producing the old-fashioned, beat-up piece of equipment. "Who knows, it might be a collectors' item some day, and you'll be the only person who kept one, and you'll make thousands, no, trillions!"

K shook his head again.

"Why do you hate me?" Shuichi cried, tears overflowing and hands, still with the pokedex in their grasp, brought up to cover his mouth.

"You're as bad as Ryuichi, Shu-chan," K guffawed. "He was always trying to bribe me with the useless junk he found in his pockets in order to go off on crazy, unplanned escapades, too."

Shuichi gasped, immediately brightening at the mention of Ryuichi's name. "Really?" he questioned breathlessly.

"Mm hmm." K nodded. "But, we're still not going to take "Zubat Road"."

"But, if we don't, I'll never get my chance to see him again or confront him for what he said!" Shuichi shouted whiningly.

"Who's he talking about now?" Suguru asked, mumbling to Hiro.

"The guy he met yesterday that his Jynx attacked," Hiro informed him.

"That guy? I thought Shuichi would have forgotten all about him already," Suguru commented in quiet amazement.

"Why would I forget about someone that quickly?" Shuichi asked testily, overhearing them. "Are you implying something?" He started glaring.

"Oh don't worry, Shuichi," K comforted. "We already know you are the way you are."

A look of confusion sat on Shuichi's face before he decided that whether the comment had been an insult or not didn't matter.

K suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, Hiro and Suguru almost running into him because of it.

Kneeling down, he slid off his backpack and began hunting for something in its confines.

"What are you doing now?" Suguru asked. Shuichi had slid up next to K's backpack attempting to get a look at what was in it, but K found what he was looking for before Shuichi really had a chance to see any more than a jumble of rolling pokeballs and some spare tins of Pokémon food.

"Here you go, Shuichi. To keep that fickle little head of yours warm." He held out to Shuichi a rumpled red and white baseball cap, the letters 'BAD' stenciled on the front.

"… Huh?" Shuichi stared, mystified.

"It used to be Ryuichi Sakuma's—"the cap was ripped from his hand and on Shuichi's head before he could finish speaking. "Heh. That was the first and last time I ever accepted a bribe from Ryuichi, especially one where whatever he traded he claimed would eventually be worth "trillions"." K smirked at the memory.

"Oooooooooooh, K… This probably IS worth trillions!" Shuichi's adoration was practically blinding. "Thank you!"

"If he had the hat, why was he so worried about Zubats in his hair?" Suguru asked Hiro, exasperatedly.

Hiro just stood beside him, scratching the back of his head, sighing and looking at the clouds for guidance.

"Now, no more talk about following this person you met yesterday," K commanded, returning to his full height and putting on a pair of sunglasses he'd also snagged from his pack. "I can't have any trainer in a team of mine being distracted by trifling occurrences that happen along the way, understood?"

Shuichi looked up at him from where he still squatted on the ground, now realizing that the baseball cap came with a price. He took off the cap and rotated it in his hands, contemplating the universe for all the outward appearances he gave.

"So… if I give back the cap… can we go after the guy?" he asked, looking up through his pink bangs at the team's manager.

Taking the cap from Shucihi's hands, K fitted it on the boy's cranium with a tug of his wrist.

"No."

Shuichi looked down in defeat, the bill of the cap hiding his eyes from view.

"Well, let's get a move on," K announced, stepping around Shuichi, Suguru following his lead. Hiro stayed behind with Shuichi, his friend.

"Don't fret, Shu-chan," he comforted. "Most people who take that road do it to get to NG, anyway. We'll probably meet him there getting supplies or even joining up with a team in the company. You'll see him again."

Shuichi nodded imperceptibly. And, after a moment, he leaped to his feet.

"Who cares, anyway?" he said with a giant, glowing grin on his face, a mask covering what he was truly feeling. "I mean, _look_. I, Shuichi Shindou, have a cap that was worn by my hero, the god of Pokémon, Ryuichi Sakuma! My life's wish has practically been fulfilled!"

Shuichi practically danced down the path, Hiro smiling at his friend's antics, while still knowing that, underneath it all, Shuichi was hurting.

_The other part of my wish that still needs to be fulfilled_, Shuichi thought to himself,_ is meeting that man again._

* * *

"Hello, Sakano!" K greeted cheerfully, shoving his mug close up to the camera that allowed phone calls to also be face-to-face rather than singularly audio.

"He-he-hello, K. Uh, how are you?" the man questioned nervously. K had always put Sakano on edge, ever since the first moment they'd met and K had been introduced as Sakano's replacement as the manager of Shuichi, Hiro, and Suguru's team. He didn't begrudge the man, Sakano preferred being in the Pokémon labs at NG rather than out in the field anyway, but K was the type of person who was just a little… _much_ for someone like Sakano to deal with.

"We're going to be heading back to NG sometime in the next few days, so get everything ready for—"

"What? No! No, no, no. You can't come back; didn't you get the memo?" The team all looked around at each other, none of them having a clue.

"Nope."

"Nuh uh."

"No."

"It would seem, no, we haven't, Sakano," K replied with another giant smile.

Sakano sighed, dragging his hand down his face. "I can't believe you haven't heard," he muttered into his hand. "The original team of NG has gotten back together. Seguchi, Ukai, and Sakuma have decided to team up again, and they want you and the team to meet them on their way to Nittletown."

"We're already in Nittletown, so that all works—"

"No! You're to meet them as soon as possible! You need to take the same road between there and NG that they're taking… uh, I think it's Rhydon Road, through Weedle Wood. You know, the one with all the Zubats, but, oddly enough, no Rhydons. Anyway, your orders are to converge with them approximately halfway down the road."

K's lips disappeared into a tight, white line. "Why can't we just wait for them here?" K gritted out.

"I'm just passing along the orders, K," Sakano defended.

"Just great," Suguru started. "Not only do we have to follow Tohma's orders, but now we're also expected to compete with him. What a rotten cousin." He crossed his arms and turned away from the phone and screen. Looking around, he asked, "Where's Shuichi?"

"Down there," Hiro answered pointing to the ground to his right. "I think he's gone into shock or had an overdose of good news or something of the kind."

And, indeed, he had, all three. Rocking back and forth and clutching Ryuichi's cap to his chest, he was muttering a string of incoherent, merriment-filled nonsense words, intermixing it occasionally with a gleeful, manic giggle.

"Nittle *snort* Grasper's… back _together! _Tee heehee! ...Stranger… eyes, gorgeous… gonna meet up with _HIM! _Mwahah_haha_...! *gulp*"

"Is he going to be okay?" Suguru asked unsurely and somewhat concerned for his fellow trainer.

"Not until we find Sir Gorgeous Eyes and Shuichi comes face to face with his idol," Hiro answered, used to Shuichi's spastic moments of euphoric joy after all the time they'd spent together.

"Fine, Sakano! Be that way! As if I ever should have asked you for a favor. At least I'll know better next time!" K said, playing the part of an utter drama queen to get as much remorse and guilt out of Sakano as possible.

They heard Sakano groan to himself before K, in full theatrical mode, slammed the phone receiver down, disconnecting the line and the video feed.

Turning around, K glared down at the still jovial buffoon who, K somehow knew, was to blame for all of this (not really).

"Give it back," the team manager suddenly demanded, holding out his hand, palm up, to Shuichi, breaking the fangirl, I mean, boy, out of her, HIS, overjoyed stupor.

"Huh…? Give what back?" Shuichi asked, not appreciating being broken out of his climactic trance.

"The hat. Ryuichi Sakuma's hat. I want it back, especially now that you don't need its cheering effects since you're getting what you wanted."

"Wha… NO! It's _mine_!" Shuichi clutched it to him even more tightly.

"Shuichi…" K said in warning tones. He reached forward, as if to snatch it away…

"Not. One. More. Inch," Shuichi growled rabidly, eyes glowing a demonic red, teeth seeming to transform into fangs, ready to rip K's hand from his arm should he attempt to take the hat back.

…Or, at least, that's what Hiro and Suguru would swear they saw happen.

Any who…

"Don't worry, Shuichi. K's just joking around, right?" Behind Shuichi, Hiro made drastic, striking movements, trying to convey the message that K, in no possible circumstance, should he try to even touch the cap of the famous Ryuichi Sakuma.

After glaring suspiciously at Hiro for a time, long enough that Suguru joined in with the desperate gesturing, he stood up and pasted a smile to his face. "Yeah, Shuichi, it was all a joke. Ha ha."

Hiro and Suguru sagged in relief.

"Oh. It didn't seem like a joke," Shuichi distrustfully commented.

"Oh, it was. It was! Heh heh… After all, I can always trick it away from you later," K muttered the final part to himself, turning away from the three trainers to plot and scheme to himself.

"So… are we heading out now?" Suguru asked. "I'm pretty sure he mentioned something about meeting up with Tohma as soon as possible."

After a moment, K chuckled, turning around to face them again. "He said no such thing. All he said was for us to meet them half-way."

A malicious glint came to K's eye. "We can wait a little while before setting out. Get some rest, resupply, all that good stuff."

"But, the longer we wait, the more likely we are to not catch up with the guy I met!" Shuichi protested.

"I know."

"But—"

"Shuichi, what do you think is going to come of you seeing him again?" K asked.

"Well, I was thinking…"

"Whatever you were thinking, Shuichi, is probably as far from reality as you could get. Nothing good will happen if you meet him again." Faced with Shuichi's naïve, broken-hearted face, K sighed and took his vehemence down a notch. "Shuichi," he started off much more kindly, "I don't mean to be mean, but you need to know the facts. You said yourself that the guy hated you. And, after just a brief meeting with him you've become fixated on the guy. Normally, things like this wear off with you pretty quickly, but this is turning obsessive, and I can't have a member of this team without their head in the game. Meeting him again will only distract you further and possibly do you harm. Do you understand?"

Shuichi nodded, tears gathering in his eyes.

"Hey, it's all good," K declared brightly, slapping Shuichi on the shoulder. "I really was joking about the hat thing, you know? Okay, let's find a hotel to stay the night in. We'll get an early start tomorrow and make our way to "Zubat country" then."

They all began walking again. Suguru called his Seadra from its Poke Ball, trying to block out the awkwardness that surrounded the group. K blithely ignored the feeling of discontent, strong-arming whatever guilt he felt to the back of his mind.

Shuichi walked along on auto-pilot, trying to block the despondency he felt from taking over. After all, that would be another unwanted distraction in a member of K's team. Hiro looked down on his friend, really worried… and really fed up with K coming in and taking charge of their team like this. He didn't know what would happen if Shuichi was allowed to see this stranger again. Neither did Hiro, for that matter, but he trusted that his friend would do what was right for the team when it was needed of him, and he trusted himself to be able to help Shuichi through whatever slump meeting up with the beautiful-eyed stranger _might_ put him in.

K may be their manager, but he wasn't always their friend. Hiro was always Shuichi's teammate, and he was also always his very best friend.

Even if it may not be for the best, Hiro was going to make sure Shuichi found that man again.

* * *

Shuichi bounced up and down on his seat behind Hiro on their "borrowed" motorcycle, his grip around Hiro's waist the only thing keeping him from flying off the bike and onto the unpaved bumpiness of Rhydon Road.

"How did you convince the owner to let you just borrow it?" he yelled to Hiro. Hiro smirked.

"It wasn't me who convinced him; it was my Charmeleon."

"Oh," Shuichi drew out in understanding.

They were traveling down Rhydon Road at unstable speeds, with the only light coming from the bike's headlamp, which Shuichi swore was dimming by the second.

"Thank you for doing this, Hiro," he shouted, gratitude evident in his voice.

"No problem," Hiro grinned back. He would have done anyway, even if Shuichi hadn't leapt at the idea. This stranger needed to be taught a lesson about judging trainers as good or bad. Not only that, but K needed a reminder over who was working for whim. Hiro figured he was killing about three, maybe more, birds with one stone. Besides, he hadn't been on a bike in _so _long.

He and Shuichi had made plans to sneak out that night from the hotel after the others had gone to bed. Hiro had gone first, in order to get the bike, but he'd been caught. Suguru's Seadra had heard someone creeping outside their room, and his trainer had gone to investigate it.

Suguru being Suguru, once he learned their plan, he'd threatened to tattle so as to avoid the rest of the team (himself) getting in trouble. Hiro had looked at him for an intense, charged moment, then reminded Suguru that _never_ had Shuichi formed this sort of attachment with anything before, just as K had pointed out earlier. From there, he'd gone on to convince Suguru that, not only was no one being harmed (if anything, they were ensuring to be on time for the meet-up with Nittle Grasper), but also that, if they pulled this off, Shuichi might just become easier to live with.

It was only a little white lie. In any case, someone who believed that Shuichi might ever be easy to live with deserved to be lied to.

"Still, thanks… Just make sure that you don't run him over with this thing, okay?" Shuichi warned nervously.

Hiro laughed. "Don't worry. That guy has been on the road for two whole days. We won't be running into him for a wh— _Get out of the road!_"

A figure had suddenly popped up directly in their path. Swerving, Hiro tried to avoid the figure, but slammed on the brakes too hard, causing the riders to go flying into the road.

"Oh, ouch," Hiro muttered, no too far away from where the motorcycle itself had come to a tumbling rest. "Shuichi, you okay… Shuichi?"

"Yeah, I'm okay," squeaked the bundle of pain that was Shuichi. He was several feet beyond the bike, but he actually wasn't all that hurt. Just some scrapping and nasty bruising to his knees and elbows. In truth, he was more worried about Ryuichi Sakuma's hat than himself.

… Ah, it was fine.

Looking up, Shuichi saw the face of _the_ stranger. A raised hand blocked the light from the bike's headlamp, but the golden eyes were still visible in the shadow cast.

"Oh, Christ," the stranger with beautiful eyes grimaced. "Not _you_ again."

And, that was all Shuichi heard before he fainted.

**It seems I have this thing about making sure Shuichi ends up sprawled on the ground, whether it's by fainting, falling, or fangirling, it's all good.**

**Stay tuned to see how many times Shuichi falls down in the next and final installment of… this! **


	3. It's A Date!

**The last chapter of ****There's A Reason They're Called A Jynx****! I can't believe it's done so quickly (for me, at least)… I'm actually kind of sad. I realize that it did take a while to get this final chapter out, but writing the last half was difficult.**

**I'd like to give a quick shout out to Pairadice, who encouraged this fic from the start, and who helped me come up with the idea in the first place. Thank you! The dream at the beginning of this chapter is dedicated to her; she knows why.**

**I don't own ****Pokémon**** or ****Gravitation****.**

_Shuichi was dreaming. He lowered his hands from his eyes and looked again. _

_Yup, he was definitely dreaming. There was no other way that such a thing could be happening._

_The man he'd been chasing, the man with the gorgeous, buttery eyes, the man who'd called him a bad trainer, was standing in front of him…_

…_dressed in blue short-shorts held up with red suspenders and a belly-baring pale yellow tank top. And, to top it all off, he had a blonde pony-tail sticking out of the side of his head._

"_Oh, my god," Shuichi choked out, not sure if he was disturbed… or turned-on. Maybe both?_

_The sound alerted the dream man to Shuichi's presence. _

_The stranger looked at Shuichi, and a sweet, caring grin spread over his face as he twirled a strand of blond hair around his finger, completely baffling the pinkette. Hadn't this been the man who'd hated him?_

_Hadn't he been dressed in a bit more _manly_ clothes? Not that Shuichi would mind if the answer to either of those questions was 'no', but…_

_The dream-stranger opened his mouth and said, with a loving smile still on his face, "Oh, Christ. Not _you_ again."_

* * *

"What's the brat's problem?" the stranger asked Hiro.

They'd moved to the side of the road, dragging an unconscious Shuichi, then the motorcycle over onto the strip of grass.

"He's not a brat," Hiro answered, worried for his friend. It had been a little longer than the customary few minutes a faint usually took, and Hiro was beginning to wonder if Shuichi had hit his head in the tumble from the motorcycle. "Hey, Shuichi?"

"That's his name? 'Shuichi?'" the stranger scoffed.

"Yeah, it is." Hiro was starting to wonder what _possibly_ could have enchanted Shuichi so thoroughly with this man. "I don't suppose _you_ have a name?"

"Yuki works just fine," was the somewhat brusque answer.

Hiro turned away from his position kneeling beside Shuichi to extend his hand to Yuki. "Yuki, understood. My name would be Hiro."

After a moment of pause, Yuki took the proffered hand, vaguely surprised at the sudden show of manners. "Hiro," he acknowledged. Just as abruptly, Hiro pulled his hand back and readdressed his attention to Shuichi.

"Shuichi? Can you hear me? Wake up, buddy." He gave his friend several rapid, light slaps to the cheek. "Shuuiiiiichiiiiiii."

Shuichi began groaning, trying to get away from the disturbing tapping. "Mnnaah!" he protested.

"Wake up, Shuichi." Hiro would not be content with some mere groaning. "Come on, get up!"

"Yes, do get up," Yuki encouraged, sarcasm edging his statement.

Shuichi stilled, then, his giant lavender eyes flashed open, immediately fastening themselves to Yuki. He blinked confusedly several times before turning his eyes to Hiro.

"Hey, you okay, man?" Hiro asked patting the top of his friend's head, discreetly checking for any bumps or bruises.

"Yeah, but I had a nightmare, I think…Or, maybe it was a good dream…" Shuichi mumbled, thinking back on it. After all, only the last part had really been all that traumatizing.

'_Not _you_ again.'_

"Uh, Shuichi? Are you sure you're okay?" Hiro asked uncertainly. How could you not know a nightmare from a good dream? "We've been wondering if you'd perhaps hit your head when we fell off."

Shuichi glared at him. "You mean 'flew off'? I _told_ you not to run him over," Shuichi snapped, jerking his thumb at the blonde in their midst, who, to Shuichi's disappointment, was most definitely _not_ dressed in a halter-top and short-shorts.

Hiro glared back. "Excuse me for trying to get you to your beloved stranger in a timely manner, Shuichi. Excuse me for trying at all!"

"You were looking for me?" Yuki asked, eyes narrowed. _'Beloved?'_

Shuichi's attention was drawn back to the golden-eyed stranger, actually focusing on _him_ rather than the dream-stranger this time.

"Um…" He was speechless.

Slowly bringing himself up to a sitting position, under the careful, if still slightly spiteful, watch of Hiro, Shuichi just stared at the man for a moment…

Suddenly, Shuichi launched himself at the man. He was wrapped around Yuki's legs, as tightly as Yuki's Victreebel around Shuichi's Jynx, before Yuki even had the chance to take a step back, and if he tried now, he'd end up toppling over backwards, still with Shuichi attached to him.

"_I found you!_" Shuichi shrieked from the ground, almost bursting Yuki's eardrums.

"What are you talking about, runt?" Yuki asked, trying to kick the pinkette off, but only succeeding in almost tripping himself up.

"Shuichi, get off of him!" Hiro commanded, shocked by his friend's behavior, not that he really should have been. It was pathetically in-character of him. Still, he was a bit worried. How _would_ he know if Shuichi had hit his head?

Suddenly, a pair of headlights shown on the road, blinding the three.

"Not more of you people," Yuki groaned.

"What's wrong with 'us people'?" Shuichi whined, rubbing his cheek against Yuki's legs.

"Case in point," Yuki stated, glaring distastefully down at the pink, fangirling _thing_ clinging to his knees.

"Huh?"

"Just shut up Shuichi, and look who it is," Hiro commanded, not having taken his gaze away from the approaching vehicle for a moment.

Shuichi looked and suddenly his grip slackened, allowing Yuki to struggling break free of the parasitic pinkette. Even with the light making it hard to see, the silhouette of the person in the driver's seat was obvious.

K.

Shuichi gulped. "We are so dead," he squeaked out, not realizing his prey had escaped his grasping clutches.

"Yeah," Hiro responded. He'd been committed to doing this the whole time, and he knew that _he_ wouldn't be penalized... at least, not by K directly. K's Blastoise, though, was pretty liberal with its punishments. _Damn water-Pokémon._

The car came to a halt a few yards from Shuichi, who had been dragged to the road by Yuki's legs as the blonde had retreated.

K stopped the car, and, leaving the lights on, got out. Suguru did the same on the passenger's side, but only to lean against the car, holding back, while K began to make his way forward.

"Hi, boys!" K called cheerfully, giving them a giant wave.

Shuichi and Hiro looked at each other, wide-eyed and confused. Maybe K had hit his head, too.

"How are you? Just go for a night's ride before bedtime?"

This horrible agreeableness was putting Hiro, Shuichi, and even Suguru, who wasn't even in trouble, on edge.

"Uh, yeah. How'd you find us?" Shuichi asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, not looking K in the eyes.

"Well, after waking from an especially terrifying dream involving _someone's_ monstrosity of a Jynx," Shuichi blushed bright red and continued to avoid K's eyes, "I decided to take a walk, to try to clear my mind of those horrible images. And, you know what I found…hm…? Come on, take a guess."

Shuichi and Hiro just stood there quietly.

K snapped, slamming a fist down on the hood of the car behind him.

"My two best trainers disappeared, beds empty, nothing to tell me where they'd gone off to! Guess what I did? I _panicked!_ You made me panic! How _dare_ you do such a thing? To _me_? You're lucky I don't _kill_ you! Especially when I expressly forbid you to go!"

"You didn't "expressly forbid" us to do anything, K," Hiro called him out. "Don't try to guilt us into anything when Shuichi may have hit his head."

"…You hit your _head!_" K shouted in outrage, thinking he might enjoy hitting Shuichi over the head himself.

"It's not like I meant to!" Shuichi shouted. Seriously, _how on earth_ could he be suspected of purposely hitting himself on the head?

"How did you hit it?" K demanded to know.

"By almost running me over," Yuki said, stepping forward, interrupting the angry discourse.

"And, you are?" K turned on the new target, ready to kill anything that moved.

"The "beloved stranger.""

Shuichi died…Or, at least, he wished he did. It would have spared K from having to do the job himself.

"Oh. So, you're the one who's caused all this trouble for me." K glared at the man, rage still smoldering beneath the surface.

"Yes. As I told Hiro, my name is Yuki. But, frankly I can't see how any of this is my problem. It's _that's_," Yuki pointed at Shuichi, "problem. All the way from the beginning."

"_Hey!_" Shuichi protested, pouting and glum. Didn't he deserve some sort of recognition for coming all the way out here in the middle of the night to find this man, this _Yuki_.

"Quiet, Shuichi," K commanded. "Well, _Yuki_, if you don't mind, I'm going to be taking away my distractible, shiny things-loving trainer."

"Be my guest," Yuki replied, seemingly invitingly if not for the partially bared teeth.

"No, _wait!_" Shuichi shrieked, fully gaining everyone's attention. "I came out here to see _you_," Shuichi pointed a dramatic finger directly at Yuki, "and, damn it, to hell if I'm not getting _something_ for my efforts!"

"And my efforts," Hiro added in.

Ignoring Hiro and continuing to point at Yuki, Shuichi yelled, "I _demand_ that you and I have a pokébattle!"

After a moment, Yuki snorted, but he didn't grin.

"Are you serious? You want me to battle _you?_ Considering what I've seen of your abilities as a trainer, I think not. Goodbye." Yuki began to walk away.

"Just one round!" Shuichi called out. "Just one, and, if you win, I'll never ever bother you again."

Yuki stopped and looked back over his shoulder. "Ever?"

"Ever. Never, ever. Never, ever, ever, ever… But, if I win, you have to go on a date with me," Shuichi quickly tacked on.

"Oh, gods, just drop it, Shuichi," Hiro said, tired and exasperated.

"Did you really just say you wanted to go on a date with me?" Yuki asked, a stunned expression on his face.

"Yes, I did, now will you battle me or not?" Shuichi was blushing to his roots, but this was what he wanted.

"…Fine." Yuki turned around to fully face his challenger.

"No, no, I forbid this!" K declared, making an 'X' with his arms in front of him. "First of all, Shuichi, battling this guy would gain nothing for anyone. Second, when you win, you wouldn't be able to go on a date with this guy anyway; we have an appointment to make, remember?"

"What do you mean 'when he wins'?" Yuki asked suddenly, brow furrowing.

"Shuichi isn't near as bad as you might think he is," Hiro answered.

"Really, he's not," Suguru backed him up, as if there was no possible way anyone could take Shuichi seriously without multiple people vouching for him.

"How good is he?" Yuki questioned, looking at Hiro, having picked him out as the most coherent.

"Better than his Jynx would suggest," Hiro answered wryly.

"Wrong, no. No, no, _no,_ _no!_" K interrupted. "It's the prime example of Shuichi's work as a trainer. You don't want to battle him; it'll be a waste of what I am sure is your valuable time," he blathered.

"Shut up, K!" Shuichi yelped.

"What's your problem, anyway?" Suguru asked, K's behavior having become a little too odd and adamant for him.

"He's distractible enough as it is already!" K shouted, using his whole arm to point at Shuichi. "If, for any absurd reason, he and blondie over there—"

"_Look who's talking!_" Shuichi screeched, being completely ignored.

"—got together, do you realize the full implications of how completely _unmanageable_ he would become? And, _I'm_ the manager!"

"Are we going to battle or not?" Yuki spoke up again, becoming impatient.

"Yes!" Shuichi called out, walking forward.

"Then, I call out my Nidoking," Yuki declared offhandedly. Reaching into his back pocket, Yuki pulled out a pokéball and tossed it into the air, releasing the Pokémon.

As the spiky giant rodent took form, Shuichi's eyes began to glaze over.

"…Well?" Yuki prompted when Shuichi made no move to call his own creature to the field. "This single round is going to end up taking longer than the regular three."

…

"Uh, Shuichi?" Hiro queried.

"Oh, this is just so perfect!" Shuichi squealed out of the blue, causing everyone to jump. "I am _so_ using my Nidoqueen in this battle!"

Suguru face-palmed himself and Hiro and K both rolled their eyes as Shuichi tore his backpack from his shoulders and rammed his hand beneath the flap, searching for the pokéball he wanted. But, Shuichi never found the pokéball he wanted. Instead, a different pokéball was shifted out of the backpack, opening when it fell to the ground.

And, oh, the _horrors_ it unleashed.

"_No_, Jynx! Get back in your pokéball!" Shuichi commanded to no affect as the opera singer Pokémon burst forth.

"Oh, _God!_" K shrieked.

"_Jynx,_" the Pokémon loudly droned, suddenly catching sight of her beloved. "_Jynx!_"

The Pokémon began to run headlong at K, ready to give him a big smooch. K screamed and dived beneath the car as Shuichi repeatedly and uselessly commanded 'no.'

"Nidoking, tackle!"

Almost immediately, the Jynx was brought down beneath the weight of the Nidoking, knocked out easily due to its lack of battle experience.

"_Nidoking,_" the Pokémon grumbled, annoyed at how quickly the fight was over.

"That will be all, Nidoking," Yuki said, retracting the Pokémon back into its pokéball.

"Oh, man, oh, man, oh, man, oh, man," Shuichi whimpered to himself, already having covered his face with his hands. _How could this have happened? Of _all_ times, how could this have happened _now_? In front of the gorgeous stranger with golden eyes? Hooowww?_

Shuichi felt like crying, especially as Yuki came over to him and was the one to return Shuichi's Jynx to its pokéball.

Everything was quiet for several moments as Yuki stood in front of Shuichi, who was still using his hands to block the world out.

Finally, Shuichi heard Yuki heave a great sigh.

"Okay. I'll go on a date with you."

…

Shuichi slowly pulled his hands away from his face, his purple eyes blinking owlishly. "I'm dreaming again, aren't I?" Shuichi turned to look at Hiro. "I'm dreaming, right?"

Hiro didn't answer him; he just stood staring with his jaw dropped. A similar look was on the faces of K and Suguru.

"Considering all the crap you put yourself and your teammates through, I suppose you deserve some sort of reward for being so damn stubborn," Yuki muttered, trying to sound nonchalant as he pulled out and lit a cigarette. "Plus, that manager of yours is ticking me off, and he deserves what's to come."

Shuichi cackled before throwing his arms around the unsuspecting Yuki in a gleeful embrace.

As Yuki struggled to free himself, Suguru made his way toward Hiro and away from the cowering K.

"Poor guy. Didn't know what he was getting into, did he?" Suguru muttered to Hiro upon reaching him.

"Nope," Hiro answered, shaking his head and chuckling somewhat evilly to himself. "But, he's stuck now."

"_I love you, Yuki!_"

_**The End**_

**The first chapter-fic I've ever completed! That's a really fulfilling feeling… Of course, now I'm going to have to start thinking about the sequel (in which a lot of the things left unanswered in this fic will be answered), so I guess it's really not over ^-^. **


End file.
